Parma wallaby

Macropus parma

Blamed on foxes

IUCN status: Near Threatened

EPBC Predator Threat Rating: ****

IUCN claim: “Forest fragmentation combined with predation from foxes appear to be the principal reasons for the decline of the species. Grazing and burning regimes that affect availability of shelter are a disadvantage to populations (Maxwell et al. 1996). Reintroductions of the species have been unsuccessful due to fox predation.”

Studies in support

Found in 1% of fox scats where the wallabies had been reintroduced (Glen et al. 2011). At the same site foxes had been attributed with hunting all the reintroduced, predator-inexperienced, wallabies (Short et al. 1992).

Studies not in support

No studies

Is the threat claim evidence-based?

There are no studies evidencing a negative association between foxes and parma wallaby populations. The fate of reintroduced animals is not a reliable proxy for the fate of populations.

Evidence linking Macropus parma to foxes. Systematic review of evidence for an association between Macropus parma and foxes. Positive studies are in support of the hypothesis that foxes contribute to the decline of Macropus parma, negative studies are not in support. Predation studies include studies documenting hunting or scavenging; baiting studies are associations between poison baiting and threatened mammal abundance where information on predator abundance is not provided; population studies are associations between threatened mammal and predator abundance. See methods section in [current submission] for details on evidence categories.

References

Current submission (2023) Scant evidence that introduced predators cause extinctions.

EPBC. (2013) Threat Abatement Plan for Predation by the European Red Fox (2008). Five yearly review. Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts, Government of Australia (Appendix E: EPBC Act listed threatened species).

Glen, A.S., Pennay, M., Dickman, C.R., Wintle, B.A. and Firestone, K.B., 2011. Diets of sympatric native and introduced carnivores in the Barrington Tops, eastern Australia. Austral Ecology, 36(3), pp.290-296.

IUCN Red List. https://www.iucnredlist.org/ Accessed June 2023

Short, J., Bradshaw, S.D., Giles, J., Prince, R.I.T. and Wilson, G.R., 1992. Reintroduction of macropods (Marsupialia: Macropodoidea) in Australia—a review. Biological Conservation, 62(3), pp.189-204.